This Context Report is an examination of Lincoln's school district, the community and more specifically Lonsdale Elementary School. This school is located on 270 River Road in Lincoln Rhode Island and consist of only second grade to sixth grade. The mission of this school is to work together as a team and support one another. The motto that this school lives by is "Children first and together we can" (Carvalho, 2008). This context report will also demonstrate Lincoln's averages and data compared to the state of Rhode Island as a whole. This context report is mainly aimed at new teachers or student teachers who are looking for a teaching job in the state of Rhode Island. The town of Lincoln combined contains 3,081 students and 355 teachers. Lonsdale Elementary school is one of the four elementary schools located in the town of Lincoln. A few areas of concentration in this context report are revenue and funding, diversity of the district, SALT survey standards and the No Child Left Behind Act standards.
Community Background
Within this paragraph, the ideas of income, housing, poverty, race and history will be addressed. The state of Rhode Island is one of the more densely populated states with approximately 1,057, 832 people. The community of Lincoln consist of about 22,105 residents as of the year 2007. In Lincoln 1,082 of the population is in poverty, which is about 5.2%. Considering how affluent the town of Lincoln is, 5.2% of the citizens in poverty is a considerable amount. The town of Lincoln is considered a suburb since it consist of mainly one family houses and many of the houses contain spacious yards. Lincoln is a fairly wealthy community and considered a nice area to live and raise a family. The median value for houses in Lincoln is $160,000 as of the year 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau). The median average of the people living in the town of Lincoln is approximately 39.8 or about 40 (Moving Traffic Inc., 2008). Out of all the residents of Lincoln, 59.5% completed at least some years of college which is really good compared to the state of Rhode Island that has 78.0%. The number of married couples that reside in Lincoln is more than half with 58.8% and only 7.5% are divorced. The average property taxes for Lincoln in the year of 2004 was $3,289 which seems like quite a bit (Big Charts.com Inc., 2007).
This paragraph describes how the town of Lincoln was created and how it became so popular. The town of Lincoln is rather old. Lincoln started off as part of the town of Smithfield, which back then was one of the larger towns in the state of Rhode Island. Finally on March 8, 1871, the legislature of the state of Rhode Island passed an act acknowledging that Lincoln was now its own town and no longer apart of Smithfield (Wright, 2006). The town of Lincoln prospered due to its location on Great Road, one of the earliest roads built in America. Great Road ran from Providence, Rhode Island, to Worcester, Massachusetts (ACHP, 2008). There are many historical landmarks in the community of Lincoln. For example, the Arnold Bakery established in 1874 and the Manville Music Hall established in 1895 (Town Hall of Lincoln, 2008). The district of Lincoln is one of seven historic districts in the community that purchases numerous landmarks to preserve and improve them, and if you drive through Lincoln it is apparent that they are doing a great job (ACHP,2008).
In this section, the ideas of annual income, Lincoln's crime rates and what Lincoln has to offer will be addressed. In the year 2000, Lincoln had a median family income of $61,257, which is a considerable amount. In 1999, 242 households made $200,00 or more (NCPESP, 2008). Out of the 22,105 people who reside in the community of Lincoln, 10,608 of them are over the age of 16 and work for a living ( U.S Census Bureau). Lincoln is known for its low crime rate. According to Best Places to Live in Rhode Island, there has only been one personal crime incident in Lincoln that occurred in 2007 and no one was harmed. There has been only 22 property crime incidents, which is fairly descent considering how many people live in Lincoln. Overall Lincoln is a safe place to live. In Lincoln, there is a lot of things to do for leisure activities. For example, there are 21 movie theaters within a fifteen mile radius and there are approximately 2,282 restaurants within fifteen miles. Lincoln also contains 259 bars and 178 public golf courses (Big Charts.com Inc, 2007). There are plenty of places to go in Lincoln, whether it be with the family or just by yourself.
Income/Poverty Table:
Lincoln
Rhode Island
United States
Median Household Income
47,815
51,814
48,451
Median Family Income
61,257
64,733
58,526
Per Capita Income
26,779
25,937
25,267
Families Below Poverty Level
224
7.8% or 42 families
9.2%
Individuals Below Poverty Level
1,082
566 or 11.1%
12.4%
Table from: (U.S Census Bureau) Statement: Lincoln is a fairly prosperous community. Both the median household income and the median family income for Lincoln are only a little less than the state of Rhode Island as a whole. In the community of Lincoln, there is a fair amount of families below poverty level (224). The number of individuals below poverty level is quite overwhelming, it is a staggering 1,082.
Race Table:
Lincoln
Rhode Island
United States
White
19,967
882,370
75.1%
Black/African American
176
54,396
12.3%
Asian
366
29,406
3.6%
Hispanic
343
117,708
12.5%
Table from: ( U.S Census Bureau)
Statement: The community of Lincoln consist of mainly whites with 19,967. The next largest race group is Asian with 366, then Hispanic at 343 and lastly African American making up 176.
District
In this paragraph the topic of Lincoln's expenditures, per-pupil expenditures are discussed. Lincoln as a town spends $36.9 million on local revenue and funding while the state of Rhode Island spends a whopping $1.1 billion. On state revenue and funding the town of Lincoln spends about $7.4 million and Rhode Island spends $749.8 million (NCPESP, 2008). According to the per-pupil expenditures excluding other commitments chart on Information Works, Lincoln as a district, spends more money on the total per-pupil expenditures which is $13,852, than the state of Rhode Island as a whole which would be $12,700. Lincoln as a district cares about its students and invests a lot of money to make sure they do well and succeed in school. The number of students in Lincoln's school district is only 5,625 which is low compared to the state of Rhode Island's 142,785 as a whole. Also, the number of teachers to students ratio is almost the same as Rhode Island (1:10). Lincoln has a ratio of 1:8, which is relatively high. Overall, Lincoln's total expenditure is $42,678,012 which is fairly good, but seems low compared to Rhode Island's $1,813,369,500. The district of Lincoln spends $1,322,990 on total out-of-district tuition while Rhode Island spends about $105,079,824. As for expenditure per-pupil, Lincoln spent $473 and Rhode Island spent $1,083 (NCPESP, 2008). According to the total per-pupil expenditures including other commitments and students out-of-district chart from Information Works, Lincoln as a district spends $8,630 on instruction, $2,029 on instructional support, $2,384 on operations, $719 on leadership and $478 on other commitments. This chart demonstrates that a lot of money goes to instruction and not much goes to other commitments. Overall, the money is used wisely and spread out (NCPESP, 2008)
This section describes how the disciplinary problems in the Lincoln schools and how many teachers believe that there needs to be more training for new teachers. In the district of Lincoln there has been 82 out-of-school suspensions for disorderly conduct, 37 for insubordination and 60 for fighting in the 2006-2007 school year. All together there were 407 incidents reported in the 2006-2007 school year. In Lincoln 11% of teachers have reported that they have been in the field of education for more than 25 years and 1% has reported that they have only worked in the educational field for less than one year. Also, out of all the teachers in Lincoln, 45% feel that the lack of training is a moderate or major problem.
School Analysis
This section describes the school and what race the children are who attend this school. Lonsdale Elementary School consist of grades second to sixth, which contains approximately 230 students. Students who attend Lonsdale Elementary School, usually attended Fairlawn Early Learning Center prior to second grade.The principal of this elementary school is Mrs. Mary Carvalho. Students enrolled in this school learn through the integration of the arts, which is displayed through an art show they have annually and by the process of performance-based curriculum, instructions and assessments. This school offers various clubs to appeal to all its students. Some consist of, the garden club, art club, drama club and dance troupe. At Lonsdale Elementary, only 13% of the students are eligible for the subsidized lunch program. Out of all the students attending Lonsdale Elementary, 91% are white, 3% are African American, 3% are Asian and 3% are Hispanic which coincides with Lincoln's data, that out of 22,105 residents, 19,967 are white, 176 are African American and 366 are Asian. This illustrates that Lonsdale Elementary is a predominately white school. Out of all the students 100% are non recipients of ESL services.
In this paragraph the main ideas of the SALT reports, and the percentage of special education students is addressed. Out of the special education services, 10% of students have general education with support and only 2% are self-contained (NCPESP, 2008). For the SALT reports, Lonsdale Elementary school only scored a 1.8 on the indicators of positive school climate;overall score, teachers provide support, instructional innovation and variation and general quality of school life out of a possible 5. Lonsdale scored a mere 1.5 on disciplinary harshness and a 1.4 on negative student interactions. Also, the school scored a 1.9 on both the indicators of, students show commitment and positive student interactions. The highest score Lonsdale received was only a 2.0 on clarity of behavior expectations and rules. Overall Lonsdale Elementary school did not do very well on the SALT reports.
This section mainly discusses the idea of the No Child Left Behind Act and how Lonsdale Elementary School rated. The 2007 School Report Card for Lonsdale Elementary demonstrates the students educational levels and the No Child Left Behind Act. The target score for the English Language Arts section was 84.1 and Lonsdale Elementary School scored a 90.3 while the state of Rhode Island only scored a 86.1. In Mathematics, the target score was 74.5 and Lonsdale scored 89.4 which is pretty impressive compared to the state's score of 83.0. For the attendance rate of the 2005-2006 school year, Lonsdale Elementary had 97.2% with perfect attendance and the district had 96.4%, while the target was only 90.0% . Lonsdale Elementary school is classified as a high performing school, scoring a perfect 9 out of 9 (NCPESP, 2008). Lonsdale Elementary school believes that parental involvement is very important to a child's education. In a survey, 90% of parents agreed that the community supports the school fully and 100% of the teachers agreed that the community and parents are very supportive of the school and its programs. Lonsdale Elementary is a close knit school with a lot of caring parents and teachers.
Value Added Indicators:
Indicator
Lonsdale Elementary
RI Similar Students
Mathematics:
~79%
~70%
Reading:
~79%
~80%
Writing:
~70%
~64%
According to the information presented in the chart above, Lonsdale elementary school is doing better in mathematics compared to Rhode Island similar students and almost the same in reading. In writing, Lonsdale students are doing better then Rhode Island similar students by 6% (NCPESP, 2008).
Conclusion
Overall, Lonsdale Elementary School has met and surpassed most of its targets and expectations. This school excelled, beating the Mathematics target score and the English Language Arts score. Lonsdale has positive opinions and ideas from both the teachers, parents and students. This School has reached high performing status and is considered a great elementary school to send children. The administration and parents of children who attend Lonsdale Elementary school devote much of their time to making sure the children are getting the best education they can get and are learning in a safe and healthy environment. This school has a great way of getting the kids involved in learning and interacting with each other. Lincoln is a great community to live in, all of the people are friends and willing to always lend a hand.
Lonsdale Elementary School
Introduction
This Context Report is an examination of Lincoln's school district, the community and more specifically Lonsdale Elementary School. This school is located on 270 River Road in Lincoln Rhode Island and consist of only second grade to sixth grade. The mission of this school is to work together as a team and support one another. The motto that this school lives by is "Children first and together we can" (Carvalho, 2008). This context report will also demonstrate Lincoln's averages and data compared to the state of Rhode Island as a whole. This context report is mainly aimed at new teachers or student teachers who are looking for a teaching job in the state of Rhode Island. The town of Lincoln combined contains 3,081 students and 355 teachers. Lonsdale Elementary school is one of the four elementary schools located in the town of Lincoln. A few areas of concentration in this context report are revenue and funding, diversity of the district, SALT survey standards and the No Child Left Behind Act standards.
Community Background
Within this paragraph, the ideas of income, housing, poverty, race and history will be addressed. The state of Rhode Island is one of the more densely populated states with approximately 1,057, 832 people. The community of Lincoln consist of about 22,105 residents as of the year 2007. In Lincoln 1,082 of the population is in poverty, which is about 5.2%. Considering how affluent the town of Lincoln is, 5.2% of the citizens in poverty is a considerable amount. The town of Lincoln is considered a suburb since it consist of mainly one family houses and many of the houses contain spacious yards. Lincoln is a fairly wealthy community and considered a nice area to live and raise a family. The median value for houses in Lincoln is $160,000 as of the year 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau). The median average of the people living in the town of Lincoln is approximately 39.8 or about 40 (Moving Traffic Inc., 2008). Out of all the residents of Lincoln, 59.5% completed at least some years of college which is really good compared to the state of Rhode Island that has 78.0%. The number of married couples that reside in Lincoln is more than half with 58.8% and only 7.5% are divorced. The average property taxes for Lincoln in the year of 2004 was $3,289 which seems like quite a bit (Big Charts.com Inc., 2007).
This paragraph describes how the town of Lincoln was created and how it became so popular. The town of Lincoln is rather old. Lincoln started off as part of the town of Smithfield, which back then was one of the larger towns in the state of Rhode Island. Finally on March 8, 1871, the legislature of the state of Rhode Island passed an act acknowledging that Lincoln was now its own town and no longer apart of Smithfield (Wright, 2006). The town of Lincoln prospered due to its location on Great Road, one of the earliest roads built in America. Great Road ran from Providence, Rhode Island, to Worcester, Massachusetts (ACHP, 2008). There are many historical landmarks in the community of Lincoln. For example, the Arnold Bakery established in 1874 and the Manville Music Hall established in 1895 (Town Hall of Lincoln, 2008). The district of Lincoln is one of seven historic districts in the community that purchases numerous landmarks to preserve and improve them, and if you drive through Lincoln it is apparent that they are doing a great job (ACHP,2008).
In this section, the ideas of annual income, Lincoln's crime rates and what Lincoln has to offer will be addressed. In the year 2000, Lincoln had a median family income of $61,257, which is a considerable amount. In 1999, 242 households made $200,00 or more (NCPESP, 2008). Out of the 22,105 people who reside in the community of Lincoln, 10,608 of them are over the age of 16 and work for a living ( U.S Census Bureau). Lincoln is known for its low crime rate. According to Best Places to Live in Rhode Island, there has only been one personal crime incident in Lincoln that occurred in 2007 and no one was harmed. There has been only 22 property crime incidents, which is fairly descent considering how many people live in Lincoln. Overall Lincoln is a safe place to live. In Lincoln, there is a lot of things to do for leisure activities. For example, there are 21 movie theaters within a fifteen mile radius and there are approximately 2,282 restaurants within fifteen miles. Lincoln also contains 259 bars and 178 public golf courses (Big Charts.com Inc, 2007). There are plenty of places to go in Lincoln, whether it be with the family or just by yourself.
Income/Poverty Table:
Statement: Lincoln is a fairly prosperous community. Both the median household income and the median family income for Lincoln are only a little less than the state of Rhode Island as a whole. In the community of Lincoln, there is a fair amount of families below poverty level (224). The number of individuals below poverty level is quite overwhelming, it is a staggering 1,082.
Race Table:
Statement: The community of Lincoln consist of mainly whites with 19,967. The next largest race group is Asian with 366, then Hispanic at 343 and lastly African American making up 176.District
In this paragraph the topic of Lincoln's expenditures, per-pupil expenditures are discussed. Lincoln as a town spends $36.9 million on local revenue and funding while the state of Rhode Island spends a whopping $1.1 billion. On state revenue and funding the town of Lincoln spends about $7.4 million and Rhode Island spends $749.8 million (NCPESP, 2008). According to the per-pupil expenditures excluding other commitments chart on Information Works, Lincoln as a district, spends more money on the total per-pupil expenditures which is $13,852, than the state of Rhode Island as a whole which would be $12,700. Lincoln as a district cares about its students and invests a lot of money to make sure they do well and succeed in school. The number of students in Lincoln's school district is only 5,625 which is low compared to the state of Rhode Island's 142,785 as a whole. Also, the number of teachers to students ratio is almost the same as Rhode Island (1:10). Lincoln has a ratio of 1:8, which is relatively high. Overall, Lincoln's total expenditure is $42,678,012 which is fairly good, but seems low compared to Rhode Island's $1,813,369,500. The district of Lincoln spends $1,322,990 on total out-of-district tuition while Rhode Island spends about $105,079,824. As for expenditure per-pupil, Lincoln spent $473 and Rhode Island spent $1,083 (NCPESP, 2008). According to the total per-pupil expenditures including other commitments and students out-of-district chart from Information Works, Lincoln as a district spends $8,630 on instruction, $2,029 on instructional support, $2,384 on operations, $719 on leadership and $478 on other commitments. This chart demonstrates that a lot of money goes to instruction and not much goes to other commitments. Overall, the money is used wisely and spread out (NCPESP, 2008)
This section describes how the disciplinary problems in the Lincoln schools and how many teachers believe that there needs to be more training for new teachers. In the district of Lincoln there has been 82 out-of-school suspensions for disorderly conduct, 37 for insubordination and 60 for fighting in the 2006-2007 school year. All together there were 407 incidents reported in the 2006-2007 school year. In Lincoln 11% of teachers have reported that they have been in the field of education for more than 25 years and 1% has reported that they have only worked in the educational field for less than one year. Also, out of all the teachers in Lincoln, 45% feel that the lack of training is a moderate or major problem.
School Analysis
This section describes the school and what race the children are who attend this school. Lonsdale Elementary School consist of grades second to sixth, which contains approximately 230 students. Students who attend Lonsdale Elementary School, usually attended Fairlawn Early Learning Center prior to second grade.The principal of this elementary school is Mrs. Mary Carvalho. Students enrolled in this school learn through the integration of the arts, which is displayed through an art show they have annually and by the process of performance-based curriculum, instructions and assessments. This school offers various clubs to appeal to all its students. Some consist of, the garden club, art club, drama club and dance troupe. At Lonsdale Elementary, only 13% of the students are eligible for the subsidized lunch program. Out of all the students attending Lonsdale Elementary, 91% are white, 3% are African American, 3% are Asian and 3% are Hispanic which coincides with Lincoln's data, that out of 22,105 residents, 19,967 are white, 176 are African American and 366 are Asian. This illustrates that Lonsdale Elementary is a predominately white school. Out of all the students 100% are non recipients of ESL services.
In this paragraph the main ideas of the SALT reports, and the percentage of special education students is addressed. Out of the special education services, 10% of students have general education with support and only 2% are self-contained (NCPESP, 2008). For the SALT reports, Lonsdale Elementary school only scored a 1.8 on the indicators of positive school climate;overall score, teachers provide support, instructional innovation and variation and general quality of school life out of a possible 5. Lonsdale scored a mere 1.5 on disciplinary harshness and a 1.4 on negative student interactions. Also, the school scored a 1.9 on both the indicators of, students show commitment and positive student interactions. The highest score Lonsdale received was only a 2.0 on clarity of behavior expectations and rules. Overall Lonsdale Elementary school did not do very well on the SALT reports.
This section mainly discusses the idea of the No Child Left Behind Act and how Lonsdale Elementary School rated. The 2007 School Report Card for Lonsdale Elementary demonstrates the students educational levels and the No Child Left Behind Act. The target score for the English Language Arts section was 84.1 and Lonsdale Elementary School scored a 90.3 while the state of Rhode Island only scored a 86.1. In Mathematics, the target score was 74.5 and Lonsdale scored 89.4 which is pretty impressive compared to the state's score of 83.0. For the attendance rate of the 2005-2006 school year, Lonsdale Elementary had 97.2% with perfect attendance and the district had 96.4%, while the target was only 90.0% . Lonsdale Elementary school is classified as a high performing school, scoring a perfect 9 out of 9 (NCPESP, 2008). Lonsdale Elementary school believes that parental involvement is very important to a child's education. In a survey, 90% of parents agreed that the community supports the school fully and 100% of the teachers agreed that the community and parents are very supportive of the school and its programs. Lonsdale Elementary is a close knit school with a lot of caring parents and teachers.
Value Added Indicators:
Conclusion
Overall, Lonsdale Elementary School has met and surpassed most of its targets and expectations. This school excelled, beating the Mathematics target score and the English Language Arts score. Lonsdale has positive opinions and ideas from both the teachers, parents and students. This School has reached high performing status and is considered a great elementary school to send children. The administration and parents of children who attend Lonsdale Elementary school devote much of their time to making sure the children are getting the best education they can get and are learning in a safe and healthy environment. This school has a great way of getting the kids involved in learning and interacting with each other. Lincoln is a great community to live in, all of the people are friends and willing to always lend a hand.References
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Preserve America Community: Lincoln, Rhode Island. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.preserveamerica.gov/6-25-04PAcommunity-lincolnRI.html.Big Charts.com Inc. (2008). MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2007: Lincoln, RI snapshot. . Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2007/snapshots/CS4441500.html.
Carvalho, M. (2008). Lonsdale Elementary. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.lincolnps.org/lonsdale/about.html.
Moving Traffic Inc. Lincoln, Rhode Island Facts, Schools, Colleges, Weather, Zip Code, and More. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.citytowninfo.com/places/rhode-island/lincoln.
National Center on Public Education and Social Policy. (2008). Information Works : Expenditures. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2008/queries/FindDist.asp?District=17.
National Center on Public Education and Socaial Policy. Information Works : Rhode Island Public Schools 2008 : School Reports. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2008/queries/FindSch.asp.
Town Hall of Lincoln. Town of Lincoln, Rhode Island: Historical Information. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.lincolnri.org/historic/.
U.S. Census Bureau Home Page. . Retrieved October 6, 2008, from http://www.census.gov/.
Wright, A. History of Lincoln, Rhode Island. . Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/article247.html.
CR EVAL- Elisabeth Johnston